JD Vance discusses faith, new book, and 2028 presidential ambitions

Vice President JD Vance is turning a personal religious journey into a political signal, pairing a new book about his Catholic conversion with fresh talk about a possible 2028 presidential run. In an interview with Robert Costa, Vance discussed Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, a memoir that reaches beyond private belief and into the larger question of how he wants to present himself to Republican voters after Donald Trump.

Harper announced on March 31 that the book will be published on June 16 by HarperCollins Publishers. It follows Hillbilly Elegy, the 2016 memoir that made Vance nationally known and set up his rise from author to senator to vice president. This new book centers on his rediscovery of religious faith and adult conversion to Catholicism, placing his personal story at the center of a broader public identity that could matter well beyond the conservative base.

That political reading is hard to avoid. Vance said he and Usha Vance will decide whether he should seek the 2028 Republican presidential nomination after the 2026 midterms, and he said he expects Trump to be “very supportive” of whatever decision he makes. With Trump still dominant in Republican politics, Vance’s effort to define his own lane depends in part on whether he can present faith not just as testimony, but as governing philosophy: disciplined, traditional, and rooted in family and duty.

The details of his conversion have become part of that larger narrative. Vance was baptized and confirmed Catholic in August 2019 at St. Gertrude’s, a Dominican priory in Cincinnati. In a 2020 essay for The Lamp, he described the journey back to the Church as slow and uneven, language that fits the memoir’s emphasis on process rather than conversion as a single dramatic moment. That arc gives Vance a way to speak to voters who see religious conviction as both personal grounding and political credibility.

The interview also lands as attention grows around Vance’s family life. CBS News reported that Vance and Usha Vance are expecting their fourth child, adding another layer to the image he is presenting: husband, father, Catholic convert and potential national contender. Together, the book and the interview suggest a deliberate effort to broaden his appeal for a post-Trump Republican electorate, one that may reward not just allegiance to the conservative base, but a more expansive story about faith, family and national purpose.